Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many local authorities they estimate will reduce their Housing Related Support programme budgets in 2017–18 by (1) 30 to 40 per cent, and (2) 50 to 100 per cent.
Answered on
12 April 2017
The Government has not made an estimate but expects local authorities to take on the challenge of making public expenditure savings in order to tackle the deficit while continuing to provide excellent public services to local communities. This includes housing-related support services to the most vulnerable in society. We have already taken several steps during this Parliament to help secure a strong and sustainable adult social care system. The recent Budget contained £2 billion of new funding to support adult social care in the short term. Taken all together, councils have access to £9.25 billion more dedicated funding for adult social care over the next three years, as a result of the measures introduced by the Government since 2015.
Supported housing supports hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people across the country and the Government is committed to protecting this vital provision, and to ensuring it provides value for money as well as individual quality outcomes for residents. As announced by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 15 September 2016 (attached), we will be introducing a new reformed funding model from April 2019 to cover rent and service charges for supported housing, see:
Following recent consultation, we will bring forward more detail in a Green paper to be published later in this year.